Loads have been plentiful this year, with freight tonnage records set in August and freight volume surging well above expectations in September. From January through August, spot market freight availability as measured by load posts was up by more than 55% year over year, which indicates that a larger proportion of shippers are seeking capacity on the spot market.

With this flurry of load board activity, the best loads don’t stay available for long, so you can’t always wait until you’re in front of a computer to find them. Here are some ways you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s available while you’re away from your desk or to help you stay loaded while on the move.

Mobile Load Boards

If you subscribe to one of DAT’s Load Board services, you get instant access to loads from your smartphone or tablet at no extra cost. There’s no need to download a separate app. TruckersEdge (truckersedge.net/m), Express (express.dat.com/m), and Power (power.dat.com/m) are all optimized for mobile, meaning you can enjoy unlimited posts and searches on your phone or tablet’s internet browser wherever you have mobile service. From the palm of your hand, you can plan ahead and search for loads wherever they may be, regardless of your current location, and post unlimited trucks in the lanes you run.

And if you click “Add to homescreen” from your device’s browser, you’ll be able to access the biggest load board in the industry even faster from an icon on your phone or tablet’s homescreen, just like you would with a mobile app.

DAT’s mobile services extend beyond load boards. The free MyDAT® Trucker app uses GPS technology to find nearby truckstops, with up-to-date fuel prices to help you get the best deal on every fill-up.

That’s not all. Based on your location, MyDAT Trucker also helps you find:

Rest areas

Scales

Hotels for truckers

Truck service stations

Walmarts

Truck washes

Pacific Pride stations

Info like fuel prices is updated every six hours, and since the information is stored locally on your phone, you can access the most recent updates even when you’re out of cell range.

And as you can see in the screenshot to the right, the app also lets drivers search for nearby loads, putting a truckstop in every driver’s pocket. The search results are limited to your current location, and there’s a cap to the number of times you can search in a day.

MyDAT Trucker is available for free on Android devices as well as Apple iPhones and iPads, and has already been installed by more than 110,000 drivers. Download it in the Google Play Store or iTunes.

Saint George Insurance Brokerage Inc. partners with DAT to offer a special on the TruckersEdge load board to its members. Sign up for TruckersEdge today and get your first 30 days free by signing up at www.truckersedge.net/promo258 or entering “promo258” during sign up.